Good morning.
For all of us fighting to grow our companies day by day and dollar by dollar, it’s a little intimidating to see someone like Sam Bankman-Fried, age 30, start a company, build it to a valuation of $32 billion, and then collapse in a day. We at Fortune went along for that ride, putting SBF on the cover of our August/September issue and asking if he might be the next Warren Buffett: “He could build an empire like the Oracle of Omaha—or crash and burn.” We now know which. SBF himself was direct in his Twitter analysis: “I f----- up, and should have done better.”
In one sense, this is an all-too-familiar story, of companies built on excess leverage. It’s the story of Lehman Brothers or the dot.com boom. But Lehman’s bonds were supported by overvalued houses, and pets.com actually shipped a lot of dog food. Crypto is more like tulip mania—there is nothing much holding it up except the belief it eventually will go higher. If that belief goes away, what’s left? We may soon find out. In the meantime, for those who aren’t invested in crypto, this is a great spectator sport—rivaling Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover. You can read Fortune’s coverage here.
And since it’s Friday, some feedback. Lots of response to my piece Monday on final five voting as a way to fix the U.S.’s political problem. E.G. dubbed it:
“Too complex…and complex is viewed by a suspicious public as lacking transparency.”
D.W. was more open to the idea, calling it “very clever,” but ultimately concluding:
“It would take the founding fathers rising from the dead to get this passed. And even they might fail.”
But wait! Final five was indeed on the ballot in Nevada, and no founding fathers were spotted there, yet the initiative appears to be ahead as of this writing. Watch this space.
More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
